A ransomware attack has disrupted the digital operations of the Spanish Employment Agency SEPE that was suffering already with enormous workload because of pandemic indicted job losses that were driving a negative impact on the economy.
SEPE released a press statement that the file encrypting malware incident has impacted the ITC systems, prompting the staff to isolate and mitigate the risks to the core. Also, there will be no effect on the unemployment benefits being rendered to the jobless and the applicants might get a service extension to apply for the benefits further.
Our effort is to restore back the services of State Public Employment Service and then extend their recovery to citizens’ charter, companies and other employment offices.
Sources reporting to Cybersecurity Insiders state the malware impacted workstations operating in over 710 SEPE offices and even the remote workforce could not access critical data related to union CSIF.
The type of ransomware that targeted SEPE is yet to be known. And the admin staff are currently busy processing the unemployment benefits on a manual note and are taking contact details on paper- only if the case needs a follow up.
Note- SEPE is an authorized body that is linked to the Ministry of Employment and Social Services via Secretariat of State for Employment. Its primary aim is to distribute unemployment benefits to those who are legally unemployed. As per the current stats got from the Ministry of Employment, over 4 million people are jobless.
